Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Mr Z was an elementary school French teacher I had for a year. Like many French teachers in peripheral Anglo-Canadian communities, he'd probably spent decades trying to teach French to kids who mocked him without mercy for his efforts. When I got him he was old, very angry, and verbally and physically abusive. Chalk-brushes, text-books, and sometimes chairs and desks impacted the bodies and heads of 10 year old children when he'd go apoplectic. Of course, this being a Catholic school, abuse of this and darker natures was ignored or covered-up.

I hate to think what might have happened if Mr Z had been armed during one of his fits.

The assumption that for the purposes of firearms possession and use teachers are universally saintly creatures, is beyond me.

Lorne .. same thing here. I am a survivor of Saskatchewan's Separate School System (Catholic). I recall Sister C being able to nail any kid right in the middle of the forehead with the stub of a piece of chalk from anywhere in the classroom .. usually for the crime of being inattentive. And that was one of the lesser things I saw at St. Michael's School.